Railway & Main: Small-Town Saskatchewan Hotels

Hotels are one of the oldest and most common forms of business enterprise in rural Saskatchewan. The fact that Saskatchewan’s tenacious old hotels still stand on the corners of Railway and Main is a testament to the determination of the people who have owned and operated them over the past 100 years - and to the fact that they haven't burned down!

Gainsborough

Girvin

Glen Ewen

In 1907, George Reading "Tony" Wincott owned the Imperial Hotel in Glen Ewen. Born in England, Wincott came to Saskatchewan from Ontario in 1896. While working for a horse trader in Montana, it was said he looked like a Mexican to he was nicknamed Tony. While operating the Imperial Hotel, Wincott raised Saint Bernard dogs which won may prizes in shows across Canada. In December of 1908, he married Caroline Erickson who had worked in the dining room of the hotel. Their son George was born in the hotel in 1910. Their second son Alusym was born two years later.

Goodwater

Mrs. Elizabeth (aka Betty Ann) McMickin built the hotel in Goodwater in 1910 when she was about 55 years old. (She may be one of the women shown in this photo, although they all appear to be fairly young.) Elizabeth and James McMicken, of Irish ancestry, came to Saskatchewan from Ontario, via Manitoba, in about 1905. They farmed in the Assiniboia district for several years. James and the six McMickin children moved to the United States at some point. In 1914, Elizabeth rented to hotel to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Foss and returned to the States where her husband was farming. After he died of smallpox in 1919, Elizabeth returned to Goodwater to operate the hotel again. Her son Hunter came with her. Her other two sons and three daughters remained in Montana. It was said that Mrs. McMickin was a very good cook, pastry being her specialty. Inn 1920, Hunter McMickin married Hild Bruning who worked in the hotel. In 1928, Mrs. McMickin sold the Goodwater Hotel and moved to California, where she died at the age of 95. Source

Gravelbourg

The Cecil Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1926. The owner, Mrs. Larochelle, had made a fire on the kitchen stove to heat some water to do some washing. She then went upstairs to clean rooms when she discovered the fire in the kitchen. She escaped the hotel with only her clothes. The hotel was reduced to ashes in about an hour's time. Source

Guernsey

Gull Lake

The three-storey Lakeview hotel and the two-storey Clarendon Hotel were both built in 1906. The Lakeview, built by John Rushford, housed a bar, a barber shop, a dining room, and - for a short time - a branch of the Union Bank. Bert Jacobs built the Clarendon, which also had a bar. The Lakeview Hotel burned down in June of 1921 at 3:00 in the morning, half an hour after a dance had ended in the hall on the main floor of the hotel. Source

Hanley

The Saskatchewan Hotel in Hanley was built by John James Mitchell between 1905 and 1908. The hotel suffered from neglect during Prohibition years, but was revived under the ownership of Herbert G. Budd from 1928 to 1944. The third storey of this hotel was removed in 1970.

Hawarden

John Van Leary built the hotel in Hawarden in 1909. It was origially called the Mary Edger Hotel. Van Leary died in 1910, and his wife Lena remarried Harry Crompton. Harry was killed overseas in 1916 while fighting with the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War. Twice widowed, Lena continued to live in the Hawarden Hotel until 1956, when she went into a nursing home. She died in 1962 at age 92. The hotel building was sold to Mr.and Mrs. T. Riley in 1960, and burned down shortly afterwards.

Hazenmore

Hughton

Imperial

The hotel in Imperial was built in 1910 by Harry Webster and Jack Davey. According to the Imperial local history book, the hotel was comfortable with carpet - green with pink cabbage roses - on the stairs and in the living room, and velvet curtains at the windows. There were challenges to operating the Imperial Hotel, including "boisterous and noisy railroad workers," inexperienced help, and, most troublesome, "the attractive, well-dressed ladies that seemed to appear at mealtime, climb the open stair, and draw a large male crowd in the evening." Source, p.375.

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Davidson

Delisle

Dundurn

TheAmerican Hotel was built in 1904. It's name was changed to the Commercial Hotel in 1910 by owner Edwin Morgan. Mr. Swan Olsen, a farmer, built the Wascana Hotel in 1909. Olsen sold the hotel to Bill Wilson, a Scotsman also known as "Whisky Bill," in 1913. Wilson and his wife Margaret ran the Wascana Hotel until 1951.

Earl Grey

Elfros

Elstow

Sam Vigeant built the hotel in Elstow in 1908. Sam and his wife Florence came west from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec in 1885.They operated the hotel with the help of their son, Louis, who married one of the hotel employees, Bertha Lean, in 1911. The hotel was destroyed by fire on February 12, 1917. while under the ownership of the George W. Dunn family. When the fire broke out, the proprietors' 9-month-old son Frederick Dunn was asleep on the second floor. Anthony Leier of Allan, who was in Elstow for a curling bonspiel, attempted to rescue the baby, but was unsuccessful. The building collapsed, and both Leier and the child lost their lives." SourceSource: Memories Forever: Elstow and District, 1900-1983, p.8.

Englefeld

In 1909, Matthew and Gerry Herriges built the Englefeld Hotel, featuring a massive ornamental mirror in the tavern that had been shipped by train from Winnipeg. Tragedy struck in 1911 when diphtheria broke out in the hotel. Two of Matthew Herriges' children, Helen age 2 and Matthew Jr. age 11 died from the disease, as did a hotel employee, Maria Schmitz. Source: Fields of Prosperity: A History of Englefeld, 1903-1987.

Saturday, 15 August 2015

Ardath

Asquith

The first and only hotel in Asquith was built in 1906 by Andrew Lunn. Named the Arlington Hotel, it had a bar, a barber shop, and a laundry. Once the hotel was established, Lunn moved on to establish more hotels in Saskatchewan, including one at Rosthern. Miss Emma Brown who had worked for Lunn as a chambermaid become the owner of the Arlington Hotel after he left. Emma Brown operated the hotel for over 30 years. She died in 1956 at age 93.

Bladworth

Built in 1906, the Bladworth Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1933. The fire broke out in the old barroom. Tom Anderson, the hotel's proprietor, lost $1500 in cash as a result of the fire -- a lot of money to lose during the Depression.

Brownlee

Jerry MacRoberts built the City Hotel in Brownlee in 1909. It contained a bar, restaurant, bowling alley, and dance hall. In 1911, Jim Conner took over the hotel and operated it until the bar was closed in 1915 due to Prohibition. In 1916, Charlie Yock bought the hotel and ran it as a boarding house. The hotel burned down on June 30, 1929 along with many other businesses along Brownlee's main street.

Carlyle

The stone and brick Carlyle Hotel was built in 1901 by Ben Hollonquist. A year later, a syndicate composed of J & E Abercrombie, Porteous, and others built the Del Monte Hotel across the street from the Carlyle. In 1913, a third storey was added to the Carlyle Hotel. Its name was changed to the Empire Hotel, then to the Arlington Hotel in 1916 by owner James Anderson. Businesses which operated out of the Arlington were the town butcher shop, a harness shop and a hardware store.

Carnduff

Frank and Harry Crozier built the Avenmore Hotel in Carnduff in 1909. Harry and his wife Jessie operated this hotel for 40 years. They lived in the hotel with their daughters Irene and Laura and their son Lloyd.

Caron

Chaplin

Colonsay

The Colonsay Hotel was built in 1910. In 1917 during Prohibition, the 22-room hotel was turned over - ironically - to the Saskatchewan Brewing Company by the owner, a Mr. Daley, who owed the company $3,300. Peter and Rosalina Pura bought the hotel from the brewing company for $3,000 in February 1920. the hotel was destroyed by fire in October of that same year. The Puras had insured the hotel at a value of $14,500, and were awarded $13,500. The insurance company appealed this payment, claiming that the total amount of insurance was greater than the actual value of the hotel at the time of the fire. The jury agreed, and the insurance companies were awarded $8,000.

Craik

Cupar

The Imperial Hotel at Cupar was built in 1906. After the provincial liquor laws allowed women into bars in 1961, the hotel proprietors Henry and Laura Erhart commissioned a mural for the bar from Plains Cree artist Sandford Fisher of the Gordon Reserve.

Sunday, 29 March 2015

On an April day in 1908, Archibald G. MacLean set out on a
long walk. MacLean had arrived from

Archie MacLean and family

Prince Edward Island a few years earlier
and was working as a clerk in the Govan general store. Ambitious, he wanted
more. When he heard that the Grand Trunk Railway line was being built from
Melville to Saskatoon, he walked 46 kilometres from Govan to the site chosen by
the GTR for the town to be called Raymore. MacLean acquired several lots, and
set up business in a tent. By 1908, he had built a general store, and by 1911,
he had constructed a three-storey hotel. To finance the hotel, MacLean set up
the Raymore Trading Company with two partners, whom he later bought out, becoming
the sole owner. MacLean also served as Raymore’s first postmaster, a position
he held until 1950 when he retired. [Source: From Prairie Wool to Golden Grain: Raymore and District, 1904-1979.]

The lobby of the Raymore Hotel, 1913. Source: Raymore local history book, 1979.

By 1916, according to the Canada census, William “Bill” Baker,
age 55, and his wife Ida, age 48, were the owners of the Raymore Hotel. The
Bakers ran the hotel with the help of two Chinese cooks, a waitress and a
porter. Dances and fancy dress parades were held in the hotel, presided over by
Bill Baker, smoking an ever-present cigar.

When Prohibition hit, the Bakers quit the hotel business,
selling the hotel to Mah Yuen and Ping Sam.The Chinese owners ran the hotel
throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. They sold soft drinks and ice cream,
and featured the Raymore Moving Picture Show in the hotel every Friday and
Saturday nights.

In 1935, the year the provincial government allowed the sale
of beer by the glass in hotel bars, Mah Yuen and Ping Sam were unable to obtain a license to
open a beer parlour at the Raymore Hotel. Chinese people were excluded because the law
required that an applicant for a liquor license had to be a person who was
entitled to vote. The Chinese in Saskatchewan did not receive the provincial
franchise until 1947.

The Raymore Hotel was taken over by John “Jack” and Vivian “Vi”
Morrow, formerly of Yorkton. “Raymore welcomes the new manager at the same time
that they regret the departure of the genial Chinese gentlemen who for 16 years
have been consistently good citizens of the village,” the newspaper reported.

From Prairie Wool to Golden Grain: Raymore and District, 1904-1979.

Jack was born in North Dakota in 1890, and came to
Saskatchewan in 1908. He went overseas during the First World War, and was
later hospitalized for three years, suffering from shell shock (now known as post-traumatic
stress disorder). In 1925, Jack met Vi in Regina, where she worked as the
manageress of the Hotel Saskatchewan coffee shop. They married in 1928. Violet
Jane Roe, born in Manitoba, took her first hotel job at age 14, when she became
a waitress at the Shaunavon Hotel. Two years later, she was employed by the
Hotels Division of Canadian Pacific Railway. Vi worked for ten years at CP
hotels in Banff Springs, Lake Louise, Saskatoon, and Regina. After her husband
Jack died in 1957, Vi continued to operate the Raymore Hotel with the help of
her son, Bob. Prior to her retirement in 1967, Vi was awarded a life membership
in the Hotels Association of SK. She was the second woman to have spent 50
years in the hotel business. [Source: From Prairie Wool to Golden Grain: Raymore and District, 1904-1979.]

Shortly after Jack and Vi Morrow arrived in Raymore, they
applied for a liquor license for the hotel. A local option vote was required by
government liquor regulations, and the town vote was affirmative – by a narrow
margin. A beer parlour was incorporated into the Raymore Hotel. Vi was never
able to enter, or work in, the beer parlour until the 1960s, when provincial
liquor laws finally permitted women to drink in bars – with escorts.

In 1937, a severe hail and wind storm tore the metal roofing
off the Raymore Hotel, hurling it across Main Street. Heavy rain soaked the
hotel rooms on the third floor, seriously damaging the interior which had
recently been redecorated.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the
Morrows faced a new challenge at the Raymore Hotel. So many people left to join
the war effort that it became impossible to find employees. Jack became the
bartender and Vi became the cook. Their two oldest children, Jack Jr. and
Imelda were enlisted to wait on tables, make beds, do the laundry twice a week,
and myriad other chores. The youngest Morrow child, Bobby, had to stand on soft
drink cases and wash dishes in the hotel kitchen. The family still managed to
hold regular Saturday night dances at the hotel throughout the war years. These
dances came to an end following the war, when the beer parlour was expanded due
to an increase in business.

In 1956, fire broke out in the Raymore Hotel. Fourteen
guests in the 33-room hotel had to be evacuated when flames were discovered at
9:00 in the morning. Some guests lost their belongings, but fortunately no one
was injured. The Raymore Volunteer Fire Department managed to extinguish the
blaze, but the third floor of the hotel had to be removed from the building as a result of the fire.

About Me

One of my favorite activities was traveling around the southern half of Saskatchewan with my digital camera. My favorite photo subjects were old small-town hotels. I am the former the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Western Development Museum.

Acknowledgements

I could not write this blog without the local history books from all the little villages and towns throughout the province. I am indebted to the web site, Our Roots, for digitizing many Saskatchewan local history books, and to the libraries that preserve these rich resources on their book shelves.

I am sorry that Google News Archives is no longer searchable. It still provides free access to scanned newspapers, including full issues of the major Saskatchewan papers, going back to the 1800s, but it no longer has a search engine. You have to browse, which is not really practical for my research purposes.

“I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up letter.”